PTA Reflections Arts Program

Reflections

Reflections is a cultural arts program that was established by National PTA in 1968 by then Colorado PTA President Mary Lou Anderson. This arts program is open to any student through a local PTA/PTSA in good standing as of October 15 of each year. Students, grades P-12 will compete in four grade divisions:

Primary Preschool Grade 2 or up to age 7

Intermediate Grades 3-5 or ages 8-10

Middle/Junior Grades 6-8 or ages 11-13

Senior Grades 9-12 or ages 14+

Students may submit entries in six categories: literature, musical composition, photography, visual arts (which includes art forms such as drawing, painting, print making, and collage), dance choreography, and film production. Students may submit an entry in any (or all) category (categories). Reflections entries are judged at the local level, the district level, then at the state level. Kentucky PTA winning entries are sent to National PTA. Kentucky has had National winners for several years. Scroll down for Deadlines, entry forms and some previous winners!

Unit Leaders: If your district has no president (as our northeast District 26), then contact Kentucky PTA to confirm your deadline of when leaders should have school entries to the state, usually in December.

National PTA believes all children deserve a quality arts education and encourages students to pursue artistic expression through participation in its annual Reflections cultural arts Program. The program offers students the opportunity to create works of art for fun and recognition. For nearly 40 years, the program has encouraged millions of students across the nation and in American schools overseas to create works of art.

Five Reasons to Run the PTA Reflections Program

Students need more opportunities to create works of art for fun and recognition, and the Reflections Program provides an outlet for students to creatively explore what they are learning in the classroom.

The Reflections Program is run by parent volunteers, thereby providing another opportunity to involve parents in their children’s education.

Participation in the Reflections Program gives students a chance to experiment in the arts.

When children express themselves through words, pictures, music, dance, film, and other art media, they grow intellectually; they learn to analyze their thoughts and feelings.

The Reflections Program helps parents recognize, support, and enhance their children’s continuous process of self-discovery.

FOCUS: Participation and appreciation for the arts is the Reflections Program's goal. Although the Reflections Program follows a "contest" format, winning should not be the emphasis.

Each year National PTA asks students to submit ideas for a Reflections theme that will be used in future years. Theme ideas are submitted to Kentucky PTA and then forwarded to National PTA. The deadline each year isOctober 15.Click here for Theme Search Entry Form for 2015-16.

JUDGING

The focus of Reflections is to celebrate creativity in the arts. Every student participating in the program will be honored and recognized in some way at his/her local school. However, some pieces are selected to advance from the school and may progress through levels of PTA until National PTA honorees are determined. Works are judged on artistic merit, creativity and interpretation of the theme. A well-developed concept is more important than the technique. The volunteer judges will have relevant experience in their arts area. Entries are "blinded" to judges - the contestants names will be concealed from the judges.Download Judging Sheet here.

First, Second, and Third Place ribbons will be awarded per category and age division. However, the top five finalists' entries per category and age division can be sent to the state for the next competition. Details on the state exhibit will be shared as they are available.

NOTE:Each School sets its own deadline and notifies students/parents/teachers when their entries and judging are to be done for your school, as long as it meets the schedule below. It's recommended that it sets the deadline at least 1-2 weeks prior to district deadline so as to allow for judging or other challenges. Each school selects its own Judges and provide ribbons also. Presenting ribbons to the schools' winners should be done at your following General PTA meeting.

NeKy District PTA Reflections Winners will be informed in January! District judges are usually selected from the community in various fields such as journalism, writing, the arts, etc. The contestants names and schools will be concealed from the judges. Due to lower school participation, our District Showcase will not be held at First Friday this year and is tentatively scheduled for later December or January and contingent upon weather conditions. Participating schools will notify families involved.

December 15th - The26th District's Reflections Chair or President will send District finalists to Kentucky PTA in Frankfort. Entries are not guaranteed to be returned to the owner.

State Competitions are normally in the Spring of the following year and Kentucky PTA will notify winners directly with details for the State's Showcase and Award Ceremonies which will likely be in Frankfort or Louisville! Qualifying Top State winners' entries go to National Competition!

CONGRATULATIONS to NATIONAL PTA AWARD OF EXCELLENCE Recipient, CAYDEN BENNETT 5th grader at Russell McDowelll Intermediate School for his drawing, "Coming Home" in the Intermediate Visual Arts Division!!!

1st Place Jocelyn Martin, “Middle School Musical: The Magic of a Moment”

Dance Choreography

1st Place Bailee Smith and Sydney Hieneman

Congratulations to all who entered! All entries submitted even those not listed above will be at the NeKy PTAReflections Showcase Friday, December 7 at Pendleton Art Center, 1537 Winchester Avenue in Ashland, Refreshments, 7:00pm. NeKy District PTA Reflections Winners will be informed next week!

Schools will present their winners at their first PTA Meetings in 2011!

Russell Primary School - January 13, 2011 7:00pm

Ponderosa Elementary School - February 2, 2011 7:45 am

Thanks to our District Chair, Joy Sandifer,

for doing such a good job!

2011-2012 Theme is: "Diversity Means..."

Five Reasons to Run the PTA Reflections Program

Students need more opportunities to create works of art for fun and recognition, and the Reflections Program provides an outlet for students to creatively explore what they are learning in the classroom.

The Reflections Program is run by parent volunteers, thereby providing another opportunity to involve parents in their children’s education.

Participation in the Reflections Program gives students a chance to experiment in the arts.

When children express themselves through words, pictures, music, dance, film, and other art media, they grow intellectually; they learn to analyze their thoughts and feelings.

The Reflections Program helps parents recognize, support, and enhance their children’s continuous process of self-discovery.

FOCUS: Participation and appreciation for the arts is the Reflections Program's goal. Although the Reflections Program follows a "contest" format, winning should not be the emphasis.

Participation in the Reflections Program is a great way for students to explore and learn about various art forms. Creating art is a valuable learning process that challenges students to use their critical thinking skills as well as their creative talents to create art that supports a specific theme.

Students may submit an entry in any of the six arts areas listed below. Only original works of art are accepted. Depending on local PTA guidelines, students may enter more than one work of art. The six arts areas are as follows:

Literature

Musical composition

Photography

Visual arts

Dance Choreography

Film/Video Production

Participation in the Reflections Program is organized by school grade. Student works are critiqued against others in the same grade division. This allows recognition and judging of artworks by appropriate developmental age and skill levels.

State Competition

Congratulations to the 2009-2010 STATE PTA/PTSA Reflections Winners from our 26th District!!

Student Recognition is at First United Methodist Church in Frankfort-- Saturday, May 8, 2010. All winners and their family, teachers, principal, superintendent and supporters are welcome and encouraged to attend!

We are very proud of these 9 state winners fromPonderosa Elementary, Paul Blazer High and Russell Primary Schools,even though none of these were among those selected to compete in the nationals.

Thanks to all of the students and parents who allowed the children to participate in Reflections and attended the District Celebration at the Kyova Mall! Thanks to all of our Chairpersons who did such an excellent Job. Our District Reflections Chairperson provided a wonderful exhibit with her school's entries and just did great! Thanks to our Judges, Anne Stephens, Greenup County Extension Arts Leader; John Canon, Daily Independent Editor/Writer; and other Kyova Mall Judges and donors. Thanks to our Balloon Artist, Greg Goode, Jr., who donated his time and art. THANK YOU!

________________________________________________

2008-2009 2008-09 Reflections Program Theme: "Wow!"

Thank you for your support in our District 26 Reflections Arts Competition held at the Highlands Museum! Our judges were Trish Hall, Former Exec. Director, Arts Council of NEKY and Jennifer Criswell-Office Manager, Highlands Museum. We thank them for doing a steadfast job with the beautiful entries from which to choose. (Note names and schools were not shown to judges.) These entries were on display through Friday, 12/12/08 at the Museum, then the finalists' entries were sent to the state PTA! The finalists are as follows:

Please review the following note on sending more entries in writing, filming, dancing, music, choreography, special needs directly to state, postmarked by Monday, Dec. 15th! We are sending plenty of drawings from the district as listed above! Email/Call me for extra details or visit www.kypta.org.2009-2010's theme is "Beauty is...". Also, watch out for information on the SELF-ESTEEM Contest, themed "What Makes me Feel Special!".

Each year National PTA asks students to submit ideas for a Reflections theme that will be used in future years. Theme ideas are submitted to Kentucky PTA and then forwarded to National PTA. The deadline each year is October 15.

Wow! For 2008-09 Kentucky had 12,524 Reflections entries. Kentucky PTA awarded up to three Awards of Excellence and two Awards of Merit in five divisions and seven art areas. The following 26th District students were honored on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at the Wesley Center, First United Methodist Church in Frankfort along with other state winners!

Dance Choreography

Jocelyn Martin, Award of Excellence, Primary Division

Literature

Maxton Cantrell, Award of Excellence, Primary Division

*Evan Holbrook, Award of Excellence, Senior Division

·

Individual Dance Performance

Caleb Martin, Award of Excellence, Middle Division

*Represented Kentucky at National PTA.

·National PTA Award Winner

Special Needs and Dance Performance are both Kentucky Only categories and are not recognized at the National PTA level. This is the last year (2008-09) that Dance Performance will be offered by Kentucky PTA. We will continue to offer Special Needs as a category. Special Needs students may enter in either Special Needs or their actual grade level.

The following two files are Excel and Word documents that can be used in conjunction with each other to create your entry name tags as you enter the student's name on the School Entry Form. (The School Entry Form can also be used alone to type the information. Then use the PDF version of the name tags below to hand-write the name tags.) Instructions are in the Excel File.